Mother, 2 children killed in E. Orange fire laid to rest

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerErnesto Sanford, seated at right, is comforted by his family as he says goodbye to his wife, Angela Mikens Sanford, daughter LeShanti Sanford, 5, and and son, Jasani Sanford, 2, at as they were buried together at Rose Hill Cemetery in Linden.

A mother and two children who were killed in an East Orange fire that left a 3-year-old girl still clinging to life at Saint Barnabas Medical in Livingston, were eulogized and buried today shortly after an emotional funeral service in Newark.

"They are out of their pains and out of their aches, so let's celebrate their lives," said the Rev. John Willford during a ceremony at the Metropolitan Baptist Church where more than 200 tearful mourners tried to make sense of the tragedy.

Angela Mickens-Sanford, 28, died Oct. 6, a day after her 2-year-old son, Jasani, and just hours before her 5-year-old daughter, LeShanti, also succumbed to severe burns they suffered in an Oct. 1 blaze. The fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical malfunction, swept through their rented, three-story home while husband and father Ernesto Sanford was at work.

The mother found herself and three children trapped on the third floor.

She first called her husband's cell phone, then grabbed her son and daughters and braved two flights of stairs as she ran through the inferno and onto the front lawn. Firefighters and rescue workers found them all seriously burned, and they had been in induced comas at the hospital when they died.

Shamaya Sanford, 3, remains hospitalized in critical condition with burns over 90 percent of her body.

Among the mourners this morning were workers from a day care center the children attended, firefighters who fought the blaze and emergency workers who tried to save the family. Also there were Essex County freeholders, East Orange officials and state legislators who honored the young mother's heroism with a proclamation.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerErnesto Sanford says goodbye to his son Jasani Sanford 2, by placing his hands on his small casket.

"I'm just holding on," said Ernesto Sanford as he greeted mourners at the church.

An East Orange electrical code official concluded that the fire was caused by three extension cords used to link space heaters on the third floor to electrical outlets on the second floor. But the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, which labeled the blaze an accident, contends an exact cause has yet to be determined.

The mother and two children were buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Linden.

Funds to help the surviving members of the family have been set up at East Orange town hall, according to Mayor Robert Bowser, and at the Wachovia Bank at 679 Park Ave., East Orange, 07017, where checks are to be made out to the bank "for the benefit of Angela Sanford."

The St. Barnabas Burn Foundation helped the family pay for the funeral.